Photo Clinic - Stop 1

by Luke Gartside
25 / 06 / 2009

- Two weeks ago we had first stop of the Alliance Photography Clinics, as part of the massive contest whereby the magazine will find a new staff photographer ready for the 2010 season. We met up with the budding photographers at Box End Park early on the Friday morning with the Liquid Force and O’Brien UK teams on hand to snap pictures of. The photographers were all given a brief of shooting a web article feature, which should include a mixture of riding and lifestyle photos, and then write up to 500 words to accompany it. We’re keeping all the photos saved for now, but here is the submitted article from Luke Gartside, saying how the whole experience was for him – Sim


I think one of main things that make wakeboarding and wakeskating such great sports is that they are relatively new. This has made for a tight UK scene consisting of a bunch of super friendly people all ready and willing to share their passion with you. It also gives the sport a really progressive and innovative feel to it, with new tricks being thought up all the time. Despite its size, it’s a sport with a very dedicated following and there are a whole host of places around the UK where you can go and do it, or watch the UK’s top riders, sometimes behind a boat and sometimes a cable, or at Box End, the venue that played host to Alliance magazine’s first Photography Clinic, both. This variety came high in the long list of reasons of why it was such a great venue for the event; an ideal location mixed in with sun and some amazing riders made for a perfect day of shooting.

All the riders were tearing it up; Taylor Dell, one of the top UK wakeskaters and a member of team Liquid Force with his huge punts off the kicker, were incredible to watch and made for some unique photo opportunities, so much so that even some onlookers at the bar whipped out their camera phones as he came round. Steve Dyer, who was one of only a handful of riders to ride behind the boat on the Friday afternoon, with a super nice style and a wide variety of grabs and inverts that framed themselves perfectly against the sunny skies. And plenty of other loads guys ripping up the cable as well.

The aim of the day was to break the mould a bit, and get a wider range of shots than you might normally shoot at a competition or demo by trying out some new angles and lighting techniques and not just slapping on the zoom lens and standing somewhere where you knew you could get all the tricks but from a boring and generic angle. Once again the set up at Box End greatly aided this quest for diversity. There was a scaffold tower looking down onto the lake, a ski to follow the boat, a bridge positioned right next to the area where most of the big cable tricks where taking place and a kicker only a couple meters from the bank, so you could wade in and be pretty much underneath it.
Everyone who turned up to shoot was amped, as they always seem to be at events. Never have I heard a wakeboard photographer say, ‘Oh a couple more shots and then I can finish and go get a beer’, partly because they’d probably just go get a beer, but partly because its an amazing sport to shoot and not one you get bored of. When compared to shooting other extreme sports it comes out pretty much on top, it has all the spray and water intricacy of surfing and all the height and shapes of snowboarding, making it a real pleasure to shoot.

So if your interested in shooting some great wakeboarding at a top location, kicking back and getting some tips from industry professionals, head down to the next Alliance Photo Clinic which will be announced here on AllianceWake.co.uk over the next few weeks.